History FromBadToWorse / LiveActionTv

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E17NightTerrors}} Night Terrors]]" is one long example of this, showing the crew as they encounter a NegativeSpaceWedgie that suppresses REM sleep, causing everyone on the crew to gradually suffer SanitySlippage save for Troi and Data. As the episode progresses, crewmembers go from erratic to terrified to suicidal, but it doesn't ''really'' hit home how badly things have gotten until the final parts of the episode, in which a scene opens with Data reporting on the log as "Acting Captain" -- the warning that the shit is ''really'' hitting the fan and even Picard himself is succumbing.

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E07CivilDefense}} Civil Defense]]" is also a long example of this. The station's computers malfunction and believe its many years ago when it was a mining station under Cardassian control. It considers the current inhabitants (you know, the good guys) to be slaves under revolt, and threatens to flood the place with poison gas if they don't surrender. Everything they try -- bypassing the computer, climbing through access shafts, and even saying "We Surrender!" -- makes things worse. At one point, the former station head and current villain Gul Dukut arrives on the scene: he'd received a distress call from the computer, and would be willing to shut it down if Kira lets his soldiers move onto the station. When he tries to leave and let them think it over, the computer assumes [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineGulDukat Dukat]] is abandoning his post, stops him from transporting out, and revokes his access -- trapping him with the others and making it so he ''can't'' disable the system even if he wants to. Thankfully, Dukat and the station crew are able to find a way to thwart the program at the last second.

** Season 8: [[spoiler:Sam nearly dies in an attempt to close the Gates of Hell, Abaddon -- one of the most powerful demons ever seen on the show -- is loose and plotting to usurp the throne of Hell, Cas's Grace is stolen, and the angels have fallen from Heaven]].

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E07CivilDefense}} Civil Defense]]" is also a long example of this. The station's computers malfunction and believe its many years ago when it was a mining station under Cardassian control. It considers the current inhabitants (you know, the good guys) to be slaves under revolt, and threatens to flood the place with poison gas if they don't surrender. Everything they try -- bypassing the computer, climbing through access shafts, and even saying "We Surrender!" -- makes things worse. At one point, the former station head and current villain Gul Dukut arrives on the scene: he'd received a distress call from the computer, and would be willing to shut it down if Kira lets his soldiers move onto the station. When he tries to leave and let them think it over, the computer assumes Dukat is abandoning his post, stops him from transporting out, and revokes his access -- trapping him with the others and making it so he ''can't'' disable the system even if he wants to. Thankfully, Dukat and the station crew are able to find a way to thwart the program at the last second.

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Cuffed" is basically an escalating version of this. First Castle and Beckett wake up to find they've been abducted by unknown parties, handcuffed together, and locked in a small room. Then they discover the room contains a box filled with chains, cuffs, and ''bloody knives''. Then they discover that the fellow captive they thought was in the next room is a '''hungry tiger'''. And then the tiger breaks through the wall into their room...

* In the short-lived ABC-TV series ''Darkroom'' (1981-82), the episode "Stay Tuned, We'll Be Right Back" uses a variation of GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel. A UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} resident finds that he is in contact with the U-boat that sank his father's troop ship during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII forty years earlier. He contacts the sub and gives them phony instructions. The next day he wakes up to find that his father is alive and the Nazis now control America.

** There's also the sub-arc regarding Clark and Earth. The first season ends with the assassination of President Luis Santiago of the Earth Alliance. Then his V.P., William Morgan Clark, slowly turns out to have been behind the assassination, as part of a plan to become a totalitarian dictator. This escalates to the point where the eponymous space station is forced to declare independence from the Earth Alliance. Then, after they defeat the Shadows, B5 becomes the lynch-pin of a Civil War against Clark, ending with [[spoiler: a massive Earthforce vs. Earthforce battle right on Earth's doorstep. Oh, and when it becomes clear to Clark that he's going to be overthrown and arrested, he commits suicide, but not before programming Earth's defense satellites to '''bomb Earth itself.''']]

** There's also the sub-arc regarding Clark and Earth. The first season ends with the assassination of the President of the Earth Alliance. Then, his V.P. slowly turns out to have been behind the assassination, as part of a plan to become a totalitarian dictator. This escalates to the point where the eponymous space station is forced to declare independence from the Earth Alliance. Then, after they defeat the Shadows, B5 becomes the lynch-pin of a Civil War against Clark, ending with [[spoiler: a massive Earthforce vs. Earthforce battle right on Earth's doorstep. Oh, and when it becomes clear to Clark that he's going to be overthrown and arrested, he commits suicide, but not before programming Earth's defense satellites to '''bomb Earth itself.''']]

** Specifically: He's a vastly overqualified high school teacher who hates his job and has money problems. He's fifty years old, his wife is pregnant with an unplanned baby and his son has cerebral palsy. When he finds out he's dying, he begins to cook meth to provide for his family after he dies. He has to kill two drug dealers in self-defense and dispose of the bodies, resulting in a half-dissolved body splattered across the entire house. His partner is beaten half to death by another dealer, who then abducts and threatens to kill them. He gets stranded in the desert and nearly dies of thirst, he misses his daughter's birth while making a drug sale and he watches a girl die of an overdose. Then his wife leaves him and takes the kids. And a couple of planes collide directly over his house (and it was indirectly his fault). And it just kept going from there.

** The second half of the final season takes it to the extreme with Walt: [[spoiler:After retiring from cooking meth, his brother-in-law Hank, who works in the DEA, finds out he was Heisenberg due to a book from Gale he failed to dispose, with him finding out everything about him. To hide this, Walt tries to threaten Hank but to no avail. Then Walt has to hide his vast fortune in the desert so that Hank can't find out. Soon enough, Hank lets Skyler find out he knows about Walt and almost gets everything out of her, failing which he informs Marie about both of them. In the meanwhile, his accomplices keep on pestering him about returning to the meth trade to increase profits during Hank's active investigation. To threaten Hank into silence, Walt records a false confession implicating Hank as the real Heisenberg, but even that doesn't work for long due to Jesse, already disillusioned with Walt due to Drew Sharp and Mike's deaths, figures out he poisoned Brock when trying to leave town and Huell stole his cigarettes, following which he tries to burn Walt's house down. Jesse is then picked up by Hank who promptly allies with him to bring him down, and as Walt tries to convince Jesse back to his side, Jesse gets spooked and threatens Walt, following which he orders Jesse's assassination. After that, Jesse, Hank and Gomez find out about Walt's money stash, which Jesse suggests to lure Walt. Walt falls for the bait (but not before calling Jack and telling him about the location) after which [[HopeSpot he surrenders to Hank and gets arrested]], only for Jack and his men to arrive anyway. Jack and his men kill Gomez and Hank despite Walt's begging, as Walt watches his money barrels being taken away and Jesse being taken to his possible execution. After that, Walt tries to flee from Alberqueque, but Skyler and Jr. become suspicious of Hank not being with him and turn against him, figuring out Hank is dead, with Walt taking Holly and running off, and Junior calling the cops on him, leading to him getting exposed as the notorious meth kingpin Heisenberg, with even Holly calling out for her mama. To return her, Walt hams it up in his final phone call, all but telling Junior and Marie he really killed Hank and abused Skyler to make her work for him, at the end of which Walt flees Alberqueque with his only money barrel, losing everything and everyone he cared about.]]